Janko Tipsarevic, Potito Starace make it to the final eight – St. Petersburg Open 2011
In-form Serbian, Janko Tipsarevic, made it to the quarter-final round of the St. Petersburg Open, after ousting Germany’s Michael Berrer in the second round of the tournament on Thursday evening.
The world number 13 got it through to the final eight of the tournament as the German opponent pulled out of the matchup after 54 minutes of play due to illness. Tipsarevic was leading the contest 6-3, 2-0, when Berrer signalled the chair umpire that he was in no good condition to continue playing any further in the contest.
The competition was staged on the indoor hard courts of the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the second seeded Serbian registering his third victory over Berrer in singles encounters. Tipsarevic has already defeated the German in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, in Washington, earlier this season and now leads 3-1 in all-time head-to-head series against him.
Berrer appeared sloppy right from the beginning of the match and never showed any signs of control over his game. Tipsarevic, who has arrived Saint Petersburg after bagging his second ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) championship title in Moscow, fully capitalised upon the debilitating physical conditions of his opponent in the game. The Serb registered three serve breaks and pocketed the opening set in the curtailed version of the game to move into the quarter-final draw of the tournament with ease.
Tipsarevic will take on the unseeded Italian competitor, Potito Starace, in the quarter-final round on Friday evening to battle it out for a berth in the semi-final of the St. Petersburg Open. World number 53, Starace, stunned the 39th ranked local contestant, Dmitry Tursunov, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round to book a date with Tipsarevic in the quarters.
Starace kept his clean record against Tursunov, defeating the Russian for a third straight time to lead 3-0 in the head-to-head combats. Eighth seeded in the tournament, Tursunov hung in the contest for merely 78 minutes of play before submitting in the second set.
The Italian outplayed the eighth seed opponent in every segment of the game to come out as the winner in the end. He clinched 31 out of 41 first serve points in the matchup and nailed three out of eight break points to drive the Russian out of the competition with the utmost ease. Tursunov utterly failed to register a single serve break in the entire matchup and proved no match to the belligerence of Starace.
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